GILI SHARK CONSERVATION TECHNICAL REPORT 2019 Raditya Andrean Saputra Gili Air, January 2020 Gili Shark Conservation Technical Report 2019 GILI SHARK CONSERVATION TECHNICAL REPORT 2019 Raditya Andrean Saputra1 Gili Air, January 2020 1 Lead Marine Scientist of the Gili Shark Conservation Project ([email protected]) 1 Gili Shark Conservation Technical Report 2019 Words from the Director Another year comes to an end. It is time for closure because we humans are like that: we draw conclusions, add full stops, analyse facts, look back, and then make efforts to move on. In April our research team went to Singapore to attend the ceremony for the International Seakeepers Society Asian Achievement Award, and the unbelievable thing happened – WE WON!! The annual Seakeepers Award is given to individuals or organizations who show extraordinary commitment to the cause of marine conservation in Asia. We also started an official partnership with SeaKeepers International and they sponsored the first 30 hex domes of our brand-new coral restoration project. As marine conservationists, it is difficult to accept the damage that our own kind is causing to the world we love so dearly. We refuse to sit back and watch this devastation unfold and will do anything in our power to implement positive changes to the environment through research and education. The act of restoration is bringing a damaged ecosystem as near as possible to its original condition. The aim of our coral restoration project is to assist the recovery of an area on the North of Gili Air, which is host to a blacktip reef shark nursery, however, this site has historically been impacted by dynamite fishing, coral bleaching, and earthquake impact. We are also developing a new PADI Specialty course about coral restoration which will be available for everyone who joins our research team in 2020. This year, we’ve also become a partner of Reef Check and our research team got certified as Reef Check Eco-divers by Reef Check Indonesia. Reef Check partners with a global network of trained and certified Eco-Diver volunteers. We are sure that by partnering up, we can share and learn from each other’s experiences. And most importantly – support each other in our shared mission to save the coral reefs. The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it. With our #PlasticFreeParadise campaign we want to create awareness for the use of single-use-plastic and reduce the amount that’s being used on the Gili Islands. It’s a wholehearted project that we keep building up with new ideas. This year we went from teaching 60 children to teaching 120 children on a weekly basis about conservation. We also introduced the concept of Gili Green on the island. Every business on the island that is a Refill Station, serve drinks without plastic straws, and offers plastic- free packaging for take-away, receives the Gili Green certification and will be on the Gili Green Map. We believe that the secret of change is to focus our energy not on fighting the old but on building the new. Our goal is to make it visible for everyone visiting the Gili Islands which businesses are ‘green’ and are part of the solution. Because in the end, we don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly 1 Gili Shark Conservation Technical Report 2019 It’s our dream to educate, train and empower local talent to become leaders of the Gili Island’s growing tourism industry and guardians of its natural environment. I’m very proud to share with you that our guide Katon from Lombok became an instructor this year and I hope that in the future we can support more Indonesians who want to pursue a career in marine conservation but don’t have the financial or emotional support to make it happen. 2020. A new decade. A fresh start. A new chapter waiting to be written. New questions to be asked and embraced and answers to be discovered. We are ready! Warm greetings, Rose Huizenga Director Gili Shark Conservation Project 2 Gili Shark Conservation Technical Report 2019 Acknowledgment from the Author Personally, 2019 is the year of achievement, both for the project and for me. The Gili Shark Conservation Project has grown exponentially in its research methods and number of projects. We adopted two well-known methods to assess the health of the reefs around the Gili Islands: Reef Check and Coral Health Index. Our brand-new coral restoration project started in June in partnership with The International SeaKeepers Society, who also awarded us with Asia Achievement Award for our commitment to conservation. Regarding community engagement, we are now teaching 120 kids in the primary school at our weekly conservation class, four times the number compare to when we start at the beginning of 2018. In addition, we were invited to several conferences/workshops/collaborations as listed below: Operationalizing the Social-Ecological Systems Concept Using Network Analysis in the Context of SCUBA Diving Tourism on the Gili Islands, Indonesia. Collaboration with ZMT Leibniz Centre, Germany. Resilience and Coastal Tourism in South-East Asia (RESCOAST 19) workshop. Hosted by Universitas Gadjah Mada and the University of Kent, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Shark and Ray Tourism Workshop. Hosted by Project AWARE, Orlando, FL, USA. Benchmark in Marine Protected Area in the Eastern Indonesia region. Hosted by BKKPN Kupang, Lombok. On top of the list above, we were involved in a lot of meetings with the local government regarding MPA and trash management. All those things made me realize the world now starting to take us seriously as an organization that is trying to do good for Gili Islands and the ocean in general. In the process, I would like to thank several individuals below for their time and energy in giving us support. Without the people below, the project would not go this far. Sander and Oceans5 Dive Resort team. Zul and BKKPN Gili Matra Team. Ikram and BKKPN Kupang Team. Project AWARE. The International SeaKeepers Society Our participants who dedicated their holiday doing research and conservation. Rose, Andreas, and Charlie for the constant support. Katon for being the best research dive guide in the Gili Islands. 3 Gili Shark Conservation Technical Report 2019 Zara for being there, making everything possible every single day. I realise we are still far from the finish line. Or maybe the finish line does not even exist. I hope this report would be beneficial for future research and better management in Gili Matra Marine Recreational Reserve. One step forward for ocean protection. Raditya Andrean Saputra Lead Scientist Gili Shark Conservation Project 4 Gili Shark Conservation Technical Report 2019 List of Contents Words from the Director 2 Acknowledgement from the Author 4 List of Contents 6 List of Figures and Tables 8 Summary 11 Introduction 12 Remote Underwater Video (RUV) 12 Roving Survey 12 Coral Health Index 13 Reef Check 13 Coral Reef Restoration Project 13 Photo Identification 14 Unite Gili and Unite Bali 14 Dive Against Debris 14 Underwater and Aerial Time-lapse 15 Method 15 Remote Underwater Video (RUV) 17 Roving Survey 18 Coral Health Index 19 Reef Check 21 Coral Reef Restoration Project 24 Photo Identification 25 Unite Gili and Unite Bali 26 Dive Against Debris 27 Underwater and Aerial Time-lapse 28 5 Gili Shark Conservation Technical Report 2019 Results 29 Remote Underwater Video (RUV) 29 Roving Survey 32 Coral Health Index 40 Reef Check 45 Coral Reef Restoration Project 50 Photo Identification 50 Unite Gili and Unite Bali 52 Dive Against Debris 56 Underwater and Aerial Time-lapse 57 Discussion 63 Recommendation 64 References 67 6 Gili Shark Conservation Technical Report 2019 List of Figures and Tables Figure 1. The parameters used to determine CHI 13 Figure 2. Dive Sites in the Gili Matra Marine Recreational Reserve 16 Figure 3. RUV set up underwater 17 Figure 4A. A team member writing down indicator species on the slate 19 Figure 4B. Slate with table headings used during roving survey dive 19 Figure 5. Two divers doing Underwater Photo Transect as part of the Coral Health Index survey 20 Figure 6. CPCe screenshot during UPT data analysis 20 Figure 7. A team member is recording fish data on Reef Check slate 23 Figure 8. Two divers were attaching coral fragment to hex-dome structure 24 Figure 9. A diver places a T-stick above a turtle to measure Curved Carapace Length (CCL) and Curved Carapace Width (CCW) 25 Figure 10. Example of filled Unite Gili datasheet reported by a dive shop 26 Figure 11. A Diver with a mesh bag filled with trash at Meno Slope 27 Figure 12. An underwater time-lapse sample of a branching coral colony taken at 4 m depth 28 Figure 13. A sample of aerial time-lapse taken from at the south-east side of Gili Air 29 Figure 14. Example of RUV screenshots for species of interest 31 Figure 15. A school of humpback snappers, L. gibbus as the most seen bony fish from roving survey dives 33 Figure 16. A pie chart of elasmobranch sightings from roving survey dives in 2019 34 Figure 17. A pie chart of turtle sightings from roving survey dives in 2019 34 Figure 18. Olive ridley turtle 35 Figure 19. Shark sighting distribution from Roving Survey 36 Figure 20. Ray sighting distribution from Roving Survey 37 7 Gili Shark Conservation Technical Report 2019 Figure 21. Average bony fish sighting per dive from Roving Survey 38 Figure 22. Turtle sighting distribution from Roving Survey 39 Figure 23.